


Firsts

by erinaceous



Series: adventures in fic 2k19 [1]
Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Jaal POV, Post-Canon, character study? relationship study? idk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-03
Updated: 2019-04-03
Packaged: 2020-01-04 09:22:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18340787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/erinaceous/pseuds/erinaceous
Summary: Their relationship has been new experience after new experience - for his people and for him.





	Firsts

**Author's Note:**

> The first part SFW counterpart for my 30 smut prompts challenge! Again, not a 30 day challenge or anything, just something for me to chip away at in between my other writing things. It'll be multiple pairings and fandoms but, of course, mostly Jaal/Sara and some Evfra/Sara, and probably a few other pairings as well.
> 
> Prompt list, if anyone is interested (won't be published in this exact order):
> 
> 1\. Lost  
> 2\. Touch-starved  
> 3\. Teaching  
> 4\. Flowers  
> 5\. Protective  
> 6\. Panic  
> 7\. Nightmare  
> 8\. Puppies  
> 9\. Pain  
> 10\. Insecure  
> 11\. Victory  
> 12\. Clothes  
> 13\. First  
> 14\. Warmth  
> 15\. Festival  
> 16\. Darkness  
> 17\. Fading  
> 18\. Hurt  
> 19\. Photograph  
> 20\. Dance  
> 21\. Longing  
> 22\. Gift  
> 23\. Ancient  
> 24\. Beauty  
> 25\. Fear  
> 26\. Drunk  
> 27\. Memories  
> 28\. Destruction  
> 29\. Cake  
> 30\. Distance

She was a few steps ahead of him on the forest trail, her feet finding the solid ground in the slippery mud with a grace even he would struggle to match. He was always there, ready to catch her should she fall, but she corrected every stumble with a small burst of biotic energy, her hands rippling with wisps of blue that reminded him of the trails of dust scattered between stars.  
  
She was ethereal in every way. His only regret was that it had taken weeks of distrust and suspicion on his part before he saw it.   
  
“We're almost there!” she exclaimed suddenly, grinning at him over her shoulder.  
  
“Lead the way, my darling,” he said. “You are the one with the map.” The river basin she had asked him to come and help her survey was far from any of the settlements the angara and the Initiative had established, and so far they only had drone images. Sara, eager to resume her Pathfinding duties, had volunteered to go and take detailed scans of the terrain, as well as soil and plant samples. He had just been thrilled at the prospect of entire days alone in the wilderness with her. The forest was too dense for the Nomad, or even for the _Tempest_ to land, so he carried a small Resistance-issued tent for them to spend the night in. He wondered what it would be like to sleep under Meridian's starless night sky; was there a moon? Or would she be his only light?   
  
She had been the one to show him a whole new way of looking at the galaxy . She was the first human he had seen without any armour or a visor obscuring her face, and the first alien who had looked at him without wanting to kill him, or worse. He remembered how she'd walked up to him with her hands raised, but without a hint of fear in her small body, and got right in his face. Or maybe he had got right in hers. He'd been so on-edge – confused and furious and _scared_ that Aya was no longer safe, and a quieter part of him had been amazed at how soft and willow y and _graceful_ they looked without armour – that the details were blurred.

A little later, after he had settled into the rhythm of life on the _Tempest_ , his thoughts had turned to her again. She was still strange, but after a while he no longer felt a mild revulsion when he looked at her. Well, maybe that was too strong of a word, but he couldn't pinpoint a time when her alien qualities became his new normal. When had he first noticed the hidden strength in her narrow frame, and when had he first wondered how the long “hair” on her head would feel when he ran his fingers through it? When had he first noticed how her skin, which at first he had thought far too pale, turned the colour of a cloud at sunset when he caught her staring at him?

Like right now, for instance. She'd paused at a space where the forest thinned a little and the path widened enough for them to walk together. She was staring at him with a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth, and there was that blush on her cheeks again.

“Did you say something, _taoshay_?” he said.

“Nah. You were miles away, though,” she said, reaching out and catching his hand as they continued on through the forest.

His first weeks on the _Tempest_ had not been comfortable ones, but it was worth it to see how her small, many-fingered hand slotted so perfectly against his own. He knew humans were no strangers to alien affection, but he had known he was treading new ground for his people when he chose to kiss her and ask her to be his, after their decades of painful history with the kett. He couldn't remember if he'd been more terrified that she would say no, or more scared of what it would mean if she said yes, because as soon as her lips had touched his all of his fears had melted away and it had just felt _right_. Any difficulties they would face, they would face together.

“Can you get that?” his _taoshay_ said when they reached a thicket that had fallen across the path.

“Certainly,” he said, drawing his _firaan_ and slashing the overgrowth away, holding it up so she could duck under his arm.

They emerged onto a cliff looking down into a steep valley, a thin blue ribbon of a river cutting along the bottom. The slopes of the other side were bare rock dotted with waterfalls tumbling down into the main river, which emerged from the mouth of a cave at the far end of the valley. He remembered the last time they were alone in a place not unlike this one, how beads of spray from the waterfall glittered on her skin and how she had clung to the heat of him against the cool evening breeze—

He glanced over at her and wondered if she was thinking the same thing. He wished he could read her biotics as easily as she could read his bioelectric field. He was still learning, though. It would come, in time.

“Race you to the bottom?” she said, and before he could respond she took off laughing, the sound of her jump-jet fading as she bounced down the hillside.

He shook his head, deciding to go the more boring route of hacking away at the foliage. It would give her time to collect her samples and start her surveys.

He wanted to make sure he had her all to himself once they'd set up camp.


End file.
